About Us

OttawaStart is an independent website. There are so many interesting, useful and entertaining web sites in Ottawa, and it's our goal is to find them, organize them, and help you find what you're looking for.

We believe in an open web and we believe in sharing information online. Local businesses, organizations and individuals can suggest websites for our site, and we'll add them for free.

They can also get the word out about their news and events via our free Community News service. And we're always highlighting cool, useful and informative local web sites on our blog and our Twitter feed.

Click here to get in touch with us...

A brief history of OttawaStart

The original version of this site was launched in September 1998. Owner & editor Glen Gower launched the site when he was a student at Carleton University in the Journalism program. Back then the site consisted of a single page with links to a few dozen popular local websites with local news, weather, sports and other essential information. Here's a version of the site from December 1998.

By 1999 there were too many links to fit on the homepage, so we started adding separate pages for news, events, sports and entertainment. In 2000 the site started to look more like the one you see today, incorporate a mix of local news and highlights of events and topics affecting Ottawa residents.

In the fall of 2003, we added a free community news service, and invited local businesses and organizations to post their press releases and event info. Since then nearly 2,000 local groups have posted over 11,000 articles.

We launched the OttawaStart Blog in 2006 as a way to highlight the best of local blogs and websites. Since then we've posted over 500 articles covering topics such as food, garbage, Bluesfest, hockey, the mayor, and snow. Our popular @OttawaStart Twitter feed started a few years later in 2009.

OttawaStart has been evolving for over a decade to reflect our growing city and the increasing reach of the internet in our daily lives. Thanks to all of our readers and volunteers for all of the feedback, suggestions, help and support over the past 12 years.

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A brief history of OttawaStart

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